In an April 18, 2015, article The Baltimore Sun reported on a study by the National Women's Law Center showing that overall Maryland women earned $.86 for every dollar earned by a male for comparable work. Another study cited in the story, by the Institute for Women's Policy Research showed Maryland women earned $.87 for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. Nationwide, the Institute reported, that was second only to New York where women earned $.88 to the dollar. These figures for Maryland women are still nothing to brag about when you consider 1.) There is an increasing number of households in which females are either the sole provider or the absolute single head of the household; 2.) The gender gap is wider among African-American and Latina women; 3.) There are questions about the growth of the disparity as a woman advances in a career; and 4.) There is currently no means to protect a woman who is lawfully inquiring about her salary and/or lodging formal complaints with respect to it without fear of retribution by her employer. Fortunately, in the 2016 Legislative Session, there is still another (there have been other unsuccessful efforts in previous sessions) to make Equal Pay for Equal Work the law of the state! In the House of Delegates, the bill is known as HB1003, and in the Senate it is SB0481. Among other provisions, the bills' goals are identical: to prevent discrimination in pay/conversation on the basis of gender/gender identity and to prevent retribution against employees identifying disparities through various state and other channels. They accomplish this by amending and adding provisions to existing laws. The bills also TAKE INTO ACCOUNT that disparities can and will continue to exist when it comes to merit, differences in education, level of experience, distinct difference in the ability to perform specific tasks, etc. In other words, the proposed legislation strikes a FAIR BALANCE demanding ONLY fair compensation for those jobs where men and women on equal levels deserve to be paid equally! As a fellow Maryland voter, I URGE YOU to encourage your delegates and senators to get behind this legislation! Both the House of Delegates and the Senate are scheduled to begin hearings in early March. So time is critical! If you wish to join movements in support of this legislation, I encourage you to do so. And by all means, study the legislation as proposed for yourself, by all means do so! Simply go to the Maryland General Assembly website at http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frm1st.aspx?tab=home and enter the bill's number into the search bar. Once in the bill you will find an icon for the PDF text of the proposed legislation! Thank you for your consideration. Together, we can put Maryland among the leaders in the Equal Pay Movements!

Flint's water has been poisoned for more than 650 days. In order for Flint residents to have confidence and trust in the water coming from their faucets, all lead pipes in the city of Flint need to be replaced. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is moving forward with a $55-million plan, called Fast Start, to remove and replace Flint's residential pipes starting immediately, with first priority given to high-risk households. The plan is based on technical assistance and expertise from the Lansing Board of Water & Light, which has replaced most of Lansing’s lead service lines over the past decade. However, Gov. Snyder will commit only to reviewing the proposal. It's been months since the governor finally acknowledged the lead problem, and not a single lead pipe has been replaced.

Flint's water has been poisoned for 680 days and counting. In order for Flint residents to have confidence and trust in the water coming from their faucets, all lead pipes in the city of Flint need to be replaced. And Flint residents should be trained and employed to complete the work. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver is moving forward with a $55-million plan, called Fast Start, to remove and replace Flint's residential pipes, with first priority given to high-risk households. The plan is based on technical assistance and expertise from the Lansing Board of Water & Light, which has replaced most of Lansing’s lead service lines over the past decade. However, Gov. Snyder will commit only to reviewing the proposal. It's been months since the governor finally acknowledged the lead problem, and he has not replaced a single lead pipe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MARCH 2016~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thank you so much for all of your support! Our mission is to spread awareness against classism on campus by emphasizing the student need for this pantry -- as many other liberal arts campuses have free food initiatives and closed systems with food "waste" -- we should have this included in our structure as we promote ourselves as a campus that is accessible to many types of students. Although it is too early to declare victory, and we will continuously work on sensitively spreading awareness about the initiative and marginalized narratives related to food insecurity. We have gained institutional support and revved up the process, and expect to have the pantry set up as soon as right after Spring Break. Today we will have a meeting with some people who manage food on campus (the SUB, Diversions, and the Cellar) and tomorrow will be working in the space that we are most likely to use to help ensure that we can use it. At the same time, we're working on finding plans B and C etc. for space in case there are more roadblocks. Please read about the pantry in the newest issue of the Trail and stay tuned for more updates about the project, where to find it, and when it will be open. Keep checking the UPS Garden facebook page for updates too! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FEBRUARY 2016~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We, the UPS garden and allies, want to localize our campus's food salvage programs, which donate the diner's leftover food to food banks in Tacoma, as well as give out produce from the garden to the public for free in a more systematic and accessible way. Please sign this petition so we can show the institution that this initiative represents the beliefs of the student body. There are hungry members of our community, students and non-students, who need free food. When we've given DCS the garden's produce, they have re-sold it to students. The garden is open to the public all the time, but we need to strengthen our initiative for free food -- which shouldn't be in opposition to the university, but right now seems to be. Last semester at the student market we raised about $60 in hopes of simultaneously being able to get institutional support for a food pantry on campus. We are no longer searching for institutional support to initiate the mission but rather want to go ahead as soon as possible. If this is not an effective way to implement change in the institution's mind, it can, at least, help us defend ourselves once we get the food pantry started either way (hopefully soon -- this will be by word of mouth as to protect the resource for now). Spread this petition -- we are ready to set everything up and want to give out more free food in a more efficient way ASAP.

It will not matter who becomes President if the state government is left in the hands of the Republican Party. Yet the Florida Democratic Party spends nearly all of its time and resources promoting the federal elections while it fails to contest the state legislature races.

Dr. Lester has nobly served the State of California as Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission for four and a half years since being unanimously elected by the commission. To be clear, Dr. Lester has not been accused of any improprieties. No accusations have been leveled against him regarding his job performance meriting cause for immediate dismissal from his position as Executive Director. Furthermore, and appallingly, Director Lester was fired despite overwhelming support, including 35 former commissioners, 156 current staff members of the California Coastal Commission, over 20,000 signed letters of support, online petitions totaling over 3,000 signatures, numerous hours of public testimony and speeches made by dozens of elected officials state, county and city, developers, conservancy groups, environmental, educational, university scholars, scientific groups and over 1,000 California citizens that travelled from all over the state of California to Morro Bay to attend the Coastal Commission's public hearing to show their support for Director Lester on February 10, 2016. In all, the consensus overwhelmingly confirmed Dr. Lester's impeccably immaculate and exemplary record of service as Director of the Commission and solidified his undaunted commitment to the Coastal Protection Act of 1972.

I am starting this petition because once again an entire group of Americans are having their votes blocked! This is totally unfair and I am sure it was planned that way.

My son Terry Bell Jr died Jan14,2012 while in custody of Cook County Juvenile Detention Center If u google it there is a news article about him.Cook county is refusing to release video footage of the day this happen. Our family would like to know ANSWERS

We must hold our government accountable for failing to strictly enforce pollution controls, and we must provide relief for the residents harmed as a result. Companies like Exide will continue to endanger people if they can violate laws and get weak punishments - let's make sure the government knows that if they let companies off the hook, they'll be held accountable instead.

This petition is about returning to a truly "representative" government, and doing it NOW! Establishment power got into the "10%" by stacking the deck against the populace of America and continues to rig the entire system towards an ever-growing income, influence and standard of living inequality. This needs to stop before a 2nd American Revolution is needed.

We’re destroying our oceans, forests and climate - but we can’t afford to. We dump 8 Million metric tons of plastic into our oceans each year, at a cost of about $13 billion in damages to marine ecosystems each year. Overfishing and pollution are pushing endangered whales, dolphins and other species to the brink, and costing over 1 billion people the food they need to survive. Slashing and burning the world’s forests sends more climate pollution into the atmosphere every year than all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and planes combined, and has driven dozens of species - including tigers, elephants, orangutans and jaguars - to the brink of extinction. And underlying all of it is the damage we’re doing to our climate: 2015 was the hottest year on record, and during that one year there were 10 extreme weather and climate events in the US that resulted in more than $10 billion in damages and killed 155 people. 195 world governments have pledged to take action and protect our fragile planet - but they don’t yet have the plans, tools and technology to keep their promise. That’s why we’re calling on the 50 biggest companies on earth to make specific, systemic commitments to: OCEANS: Stop pollution, and protect critical fisheries. FORESTS: Stop deforestation, start systemic reforestation, and shift to climate-positive agriculture. CLIMATE: Support/implement a price on carbon and build market demand for renewables and efficiency. We’re calling on all 50 companies to take the Earth Day 50 Challenge, by Earth Day’s 50th Birthday - April 2020.

If Obama supports Bernie, it will give him the edge over his 1%er, banker-supported opponent. Although Bernie has the people behind him, she supposedly has the nomination locked up with her party hoohaw.